


Second Hand Unwinds

by KatiKitten



Series: We Used To Be Friends [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, Noah Puckerman/Quinn Fabray friendship, Rachel Berry/Noah Puckerman friendship, Rachel Berry/Quinn Fabray friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-07
Updated: 2012-05-07
Packaged: 2017-11-04 23:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatiKitten/pseuds/KatiKitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three of the Glee members used to be friends. (Part of an ongoing series.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Hand Unwinds

It started when a pregnant Quinn was kicked out of Finn's house after the truth of Drizzle's paternity came out.

Wait. No. It started before then.

Lima was a small town. That small town had an even smaller Jewish community. Rachel Berry and Noah Puckerman had grown up together, and in their childhood, they'd been friends (they'd also grown up with Jacob Ben-Israel, but they were most emphatically _not_ friends with him; even as young as four, they had standards, and Jacob was a pervy little bastard even back then). He'd shared his mom with her for Mother's Day (and had threatened, all of six years old, to kick her teacher's butt for telling her that Hannah Puckerman didn't count and surely Rachel had a more suitable alternative). She'd been there for him when his dad left the Puckerman family when Noah was seven, and had shared her dads with him for Father's Day and all the father/son activities that seem to abound. Noah went to the public school and Rachel to the private school, but they'd hang out at the Lima Jewish Community Center, and Rachel would help him with his homework even if she was a year younger than him and a grade behind until third grade/fourth grade, when she skipped to fourth grade within the first couple weeks of school. He'd explain _people_ to her, and that while he liked her particular brand of crazy, most people didn't. She'd watch him play sports, and he'd come to her dance and voice recitals. It was an odd sort of give and take, but it _worked_ for them. She'd cheer hard for him in his football or soccer or basketball or baseball games. No one cheered louder than he did at her dance recitals, not even her dads.

Which is where the other part of the story starts. Those dance recitals. As small as the Jewish Community was (and it _really_ was _small_ ), the dance community was about the same size. There were only two dance academies in town, and Rachel had been going to one of them for as long as she could remember. Though she hated to admit it, there was another girl as talented as her, who worked as hard as Rachel, and Rachel and Lucy competed for dance solos _all the time_. Most of the time, their instructor handled it by coming up with two solos, but sometimes, there was only one available, and either Rachel or Lucy would be smug with victory while the other was inconsolable with loss. In spite of that competition, the girls were pretty good friends, having weekly sleepovers at each others houses, usually Rachel's. Lucy's parents didn't like Rachel very much, or at least, that's how it seemed to the little brunette. And the best part was, Lucy went to the same school as Rachel.

Things changed for them in high school. Noah and Lucy, who'd started going by Quinn, were able to see that change coming and started distancing themselves from Rachel. Rachel didn't know what was happening, and the more the other two pulled away from her, the tighter she tried to hold them.

The first day of high school, her first day at a public school, she waved to Noah, only for him to respond by tossing a Slushy in her face. She'd tried to seek out Lu- _Quinn_ for comfort, and had been rewarded for her efforts with a biting sarcasm that had brought tears to her brown eyes.

It was the last time Rachel allowed herself to cry in public if it weren't for a role.

She'd thought she'd be starting her public school foray with two friendships already cemented. Instead, she had two enemies who'd been able to infiltrate the popular crowd _already_ , and who went out of their way to make her life miserable because she knew their secrets.

She could have told people. She could have easily let it slip that Noah had cried himself to sleep for a solid week after his dad left. She could have told that Quinn used to have a retainer. She could have started the rumour that Noah had taken in an abandoned puppy and managed to keep it secret from his mom for a two week period, before she got suspicious of the amount of food that he was eating (he'd always had a healthy appetite, but to suddenly double it was eyebrow raising to Hannah Puckerman). She could have told Santana that Quinn used to be called "Lucy Caboosey".

But she didn't. Because the truth was, she was a better friend to them than they were to her. She was a better friend to them than they deserved. And sometimes, she'd think that with more than a little bit of smugness.

Usually, though, she'd think that and wish that they would be her friends again, even if they were crappy at it.

So skip forward to where the story picks back up. Quinn's family was... -- how to put this delicately? _insane_ \-- and spent a lot of time criticizing Quinn's weight (always a sore spot with her), or how she wasn't as pretty as her older sister, Maggie, or why wasn't she getting straight A's like Maggie had, etcetera, etcetera, et-freaking-cetera. Quinn had survived a dinner from hell with them, and gone to Brittany's party, just needing to forget about her parents' disappointment in her for a little while.

Puck's sister had been looking through the old photo albums that Hannah kept up religiously, and Sarah had asked about Rachel. Sarah was ten, so she remembered Rachel and asked about her periodically, but it always got worse after she'd gone through the photo album. Hannah had joined in the discussion this time, though, and demanded to know what he'd done to that nice little girl. Puck had survived the evening of interrogation, and had headed out to Brittany's party as quickly as humanly possible, just needing to forget about his mom's disappointment in him for a little while.

As kids, the three of them -- Puck, Quinn and Rachel -- had reacted to each other without always paying attention to the others. Their lives were part of the same dance, and they found themselves falling into the steps without meaning to, or even knowledge that they did so. There was an _awareness_ there that didn't exist for anyone else.

Even with one third of their trio not there, Puck and Quinn still had that awareness. They found each other at the party, and fell into the steps of the dance without knowing about it. Quinn was crying, and Puck was there to comfort her. Puck was anger coiled to strike, and Quinn was there to calm him down. Quinn was feeling fat, and Puck was there to convince her otherwise the best way he knew how (hey, _no_ one wanted to sleep with a fat chick). Puck was down on himself, and Quinn was there to reassure him that he wasn't a Lima Loser, because Quinn Fabray, even a drunk Quinn Fabray, wasn't about to hand over her v-card to a loser.

Neither of them allowed themselves to think about the other person who would have helped reassure them _without_ resorting to sex. She would have kept them out of that situation, held Quinn's hair back while the blonde puked, and called Noah's mom to reassure Hannah that Noah was fine and he was just going to spend the night at her place for movie night.

The alcohol wore off, and both swore to never talk about it again. It was a mistake; Quinn and Finn had had a fight and were broken up, but she had every intention of getting back together with him. And Puck? Well, everyone knew that the Puckarone didn't _do_ relationships. _Way_ too much work had to go into them.

They succeeded for a few months. But then Finn joined the Glee Club (seriously, the _Glee_ Club!) and just about had sex on stage with Rachel Berry.

And that could not stand, not for either one of them. Quinn had worked too hard to become the most feared girl in school (Santana was a _close_ second, but still second) to allow that to continue. And Puck? Well, the other guys knew better than to slushy Berry because she was _his_ damn it. They also knew better than to ask her out, because she was _his_. Jewfro had tried, once, and Puck had spent a week tipping him in portapottys and tossing him in the dumpster, until Mouthbreather got the message. He still made inappropriate remarks about Berry, and updated his blog with all kinds of stalker-ish tidbits about her, but he didn't actually make a move again, and as long as he didn't do that, well, Puck would let him keep breathing.

It was a lot harder to keep themselves from thinking about their former friend when they were spending an hour every day after school with her. but somehow, they managed.

And then everything hit the fan. The Glee Club found out that Quinn was pregnant, and when Rachel found out, the first thing she did was try to find out if Quinn was all right (Quinn shot her down real fast, but it meant more to the blonde than she was willing to admit that Rachel had tried). The second thing was to slap Finn and chew him out for using her like that.

The worst part was, Rachel really _would_ have rejoined Glee Club if he'd just asked her to.

Things had settled down from there, before Rachel and Puck had their brief thing. But Rachel respected herself too much (and still respected Noah too much, even if he could be a derriere-head) to allow themselves to simply fill the space for each other that they wanted Finn and Quinn to fill. She'd seen the way he watched Quinn, and knew that meant he was in love with her.

Unfortunately, she was missing a few key details. Mainly that he wasn't watching _Quinn_ so much as his unborn kid. Plus he _always_ watched Quinn, just like he always watched Rachel. It was impossible to not be aware of the two girls, and not react to the things they did. It was equally impossible for Rachel to not be aware of Noah and Quinn. If Quinn shivered, Rachel was already offering her sweater.

But Rachel didn't think of that, so when Noah said that he'd been planning on breaking up with Rachel anyway, she believed him. It didn't occur to her that he was lying.

It should have. But it didn't.

They still weren't friends yet.


End file.
